The medieval work known as the Morgan Picture Bible was designed to bring selected Old Testament stories into a modern context for its 13th-century French audience by placing biblical heroes in contemporary settings. The intent was to render these stories in a powerful and meaningful way, of course, and also to make them as appealing and entertaining as possible. In this catalog, illustrated with color reproductions from 50 folios, eight essays by historians and art history scholars bring the court and crusades of King Louis IX (later Saint Louis) to life, describing the relevance of bible stories and imagery not only in medieval France, but also in 17th-century Iran, when the Picture Bible belonged to the great Safavid ruler Shah 'Abbas.